Mr. Kim, Hyun-dae, former CEO of Hankyoreh Media Group, was appointed as the second chairperson of the Korea Social Value and Solidarity Foundation on the 1st of February, 2025. He is the successor of Rev. Kyong-young Song, the founding chairperson of SVS, who has contributed to establish the foundation for the last 6 years.

Mr. Kim has been a journalist for 35 years since he participated in founding Hankyoreh in 1988. He has held key positions in both reporting and management, including head of Hankyoreh’s legal team, head of the case team, and head of strategic planning, and served as CEO from 2020 to 2023.

Since 2007, he has been working to support the social economy sector, including social enterprises and cooperatives, that have sprouted up in our society to take healthy roots and create a virtuous ecosystem. He has also created the Korea Agriculture Reporters Forum and the Social Economy Journalists Forum with young journalists to connect and expand coverage of local communities, agriculture, cooperatives, and the social economy.

He has returned to a village in Jeju Island after he left Hankyoreh, where he farms citrus and writes columns as a rural journalist. He is also the chairman of the Jeju Special Autonomous Village Committee.

* Books _ The Cooperative City, Cooperatives Are Good (co-author), The Power of Progress (translation), The University That Changed My Life (translation)

* Awards _ 20th Amnesty International Media Award (2017), Presidential Citation for Farmers’ Day (2011)